Chapter 4: Isabella’s Version
Isabella Rossi did not look like a woman under arrest.
She sat upright in the hospital bed with a silk blanket across her legs and a small bandage on her wrist.
The injury was superficial.
She had given it to herself with a shard of crystal before Marcus entered the suite.
According to her story, Khloe had attacked first.
According to the video, Isabella had lied about everything.
Detective Ortiz placed a photograph on the table.
It showed a crushed black sedan at the bottom of a ravine.
Khloe’s parents had died inside.
Isabella’s face remained calm.
“You were at the scene,” Ortiz said.
“I was young.”
“You were driving a second vehicle.”
“I was following instructions.”
“Whose instructions?”
Isabella smiled faintly.
“Marcus knows.”
Marcus stood behind the glass in the observation room with Gabriel.
He could not hear her words, but he knew that smile.
It was the expression Isabella wore when she had already decided what someone’s pain was worth.
Ortiz placed another image on the table.
A traffic-camera photograph showed a silver coupe less than thirty yards behind the victims’ vehicle.
The license plate belonged to a Thorne subsidiary.
“You pushed them off the road,” Ortiz said.
“No.”
“You accelerated toward their rear bumper.”
“I frightened them.”
“They died.”
“That was not the plan.”
“What was the plan?”
“To make them miss the hearing.”
Ortiz leaned closer.
“And tonight?”
Isabella’s eyes shifted toward the mirrored glass.
“Tonight was also supposed to be a warning.”
Behind the glass, Marcus’s jaw tightened.
Gabriel looked at him.
“A warning authorized by whom?”
“No one.”
“How can you be certain?”
“Because I never told her to approach Khloe.”
“But you gave her the key.”
“I wanted the evidence she claimed to possess.”
Gabriel’s voice grew colder.
“You could have gone to the police.”
“My father owned half the police department when the crash occurred.”
“Your father is dead.”
“His allies aren’t.”
Inside the room, Isabella continued.
“Marcus married Khloe because he felt guilty.”
Ortiz raised an eyebrow.
“Not because he loved her?”
“Marcus doesn’t love people. He acquires them.”
Behind the glass, Marcus flinched.
Isabella smiled more broadly.
“He found the surviving daughter of the couple his family destroyed. Then he placed his name on her like a bandage over a wound he caused.”
Gabriel turned toward Marcus.
“Is she telling the truth?”
Marcus stared at Isabella.
“I knew who Khloe was before we met.”
“How long before?”
“Three months.”
“You investigated her?”
“I was trying to find out whether she knew about the files.”
“And then?”
Marcus’s eyes filled with something Gabriel had not expected.
Shame.
“Then I fell in love with her.”
Gabriel looked through the glass.
Isabella was still speaking.
“But Marcus has not told you the worst part.”
Ortiz’s expression sharpened.
“What is the worst part?”
May you like
Isabella leaned toward the recorder.
“The person who ordered the crash is still alive.”
